‘When will they release the… when can we arrange the funeral?’ asked Ruby.
‘Soon,’ he said, and started to cry, great gut-wrenching sobs of loss.
Ruby took his hand in hers and squeezed it tight. Bleakly she looked up at Daisy.
‘I wish Kit was here,’ said Daisy helplessly, though even as she said it she was wondering what comfort Kit could provide in his present condition. He used to be so tough, almost invulnerable, but since Michael’s death he was a shadow of his former self, intent on drowning his sorrows in booze. Still, he was her brother, and she wanted him here, to help her get through this.
‘So do I,’ said Ruby, putting a comforting arm around Sir Bradley’s shoulders. He looked a broken man. ‘So do I.’
To Ruby, it seemed as if everyone around her was coming apart: Kit taking to drink, Simon killing himself, and Daisy… Right now, Daisy was the most worrying of the lot.
She waited until Sir Bradley had composed himself and was ready to leave, walked with him to his car to make sure he was OK, then returned to the sitting room. Daisy was pacing up and down, arms wrapped around her body as if for warmth.
Ruby went to her, gently led her to the couch, then sat down beside her. She’d been putting off having this conversation, but it couldn’t wait any longer.
‘I keep thinking over and over that this is a nightmare, that I’ll wake up,’ said Daisy, shaking her head. ‘Simon, killing himself? I can’t take it in.’
‘Sometimes people can’t admit to anyone else that they’ve got problems. You’re a bit like that yourself.’
Daisy looked at her mother. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Doris Blanchard told me what happened at the store. About Tessa and Julie…’
Daisy had given no explanation as to why she wanted to leave the store, and the shattering news of Simon’s death had prevented Ruby from raising the matter with her daughter, but yesterday she’d had to spend a few hours at Darkes dealing with some matters that couldn’t keep and she’d taken the opportunity to speak to Daisy’s section leader. She was shocked when Doris Blanchard told her that Daisy had assaulted two members of staff.
‘She did what?’ Ruby had asked Doris in disbelief.
‘I saw it, Miss Darke. I’m sorry, I don’t doubt there was provocation – Tessa and Julie can be a right pair of madams – but they’re talking about pressing charges…’
‘Send them up, will you?’
Doris had done so.
Tessa and Julie, no longer so full of cocky swagger, had come into Ruby’s office and told her that Daisy had laid into them over nothing, a bit of teasing, that was all.
‘Teasing?’ asked Ruby.
‘Just a bit. Nothing serious.’
‘What sort of teasing?’ asked Ruby, watching them with cold eyes.
Tessa swallowed hard. ‘Nothing, really…’
‘Nothing? Are you sure about that?’
‘It’s her voice. Her accent,’ blurted out Julie.
Tessa shot her a shut up look.
‘What about it?’ asked Ruby, but she could see it now. Daisy sounded ‘posh’, and she was the boss’s daughter. These two had decided to make her suffer for it. ‘Look – do you think that was a kind thing to do?’ she said, fixing them with an icy stare. ‘Mock someone over the way they speak? Do you?’
‘No,’ said Julie meekly.
‘No,’ echoed Tessa.
‘I ought to sack you both on the spot.’ Ruby was furious; she hated the thought of Daisy being victimized in this way.
‘Oh, don’t. Please. We’re really sorry,’ said Tessa.
Ruby stared at them for a long, frosty moment.
‘Get back to work,’ she snapped, and they scuttled out of the office.
‘Why didn’t you tell me they were picking on you?’ said Ruby now, arm around her daughter’s shoulders. ‘Am I really that unapproachable?’
‘No. It’s just that I wanted to manage it on my own, that was all. And in the end I didn’t. I lost my temper.’
Ruby was silent for a beat. ‘You could come back, work in another department, if you wanted to.’
‘I don’t know.’ She’d been so relieved when she quit, and until Simon’s death had blighted everything she’d been relishing the prospect of spending time with the twins. But now her mind was in such turmoil, trying to come to terms with his suicide, that she couldn’t concentrate on much else.
Resolving to drop the subject for now, Ruby sighed and glanced out onto the drive where Reg was patiently polishing the Merc. ‘Reg does his best, but I miss Rob about the place. Don’t you?’
Daisy could only nod. Oh yes, she missed Rob. So much. But with Kit away, Rob was busy filling in for him, keeping the business running smoothly. Rob had more important things to worry about than two bereaved women.
‘Rob’s Mr Sensible,’ said Daisy bracingly. ‘He’ll look after everything until Kit gets back. He can rely on Rob.’
Still, she wished both Kit and Rob were here. The world seemed a safer more secure place when those two were about. Even if Kit was reeling around drunk, or being rotten or neglectful to Ruby – and he often was – she wanted him here.
‘Rob said Kit would only be gone a few days, but it’s nearly a week now,’ Daisy fretted.
‘He’ll be back,’ Ruby insisted. But she felt a tiny shiver of unease as she said it, Vittore Danieri’s words reverberating in her mind: You and yours.
36
Bianca was moving ahead of Kit up the stairs as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was doing, her legs feeling shaky beneath her, her mind focused totally on what was to come. How often did she do crazy things like this, take a complete stranger up to her flat with the full intention of going to bed with him?
Never, that was how often.
She was wary of men. With good reason. They always tried to screw her over in business, she was used to that. And her brothers Vittore and Fabio – resentful, she knew, of this little principessa who had suddenly been brought into their exclusively masculine conclave – had made her painfully familiar with jokey male put-downs of the female species from an early age. Not Tito, though. He alone had been kind to her.
What she absolutely never did was act impulsively. She didn’t know this man. All she knew was that she had seen him once, fleetingly, and thought Oh my God, will you look at him? Now by some miracle he was here, and she couldn’t let this moment pass by. She was moving as if in a dream, her mouth dry with apprehension, her body weak. She had never, not once in her life, felt this way before.
Kit was kissing her before she even had the door open, his tongue exploring her mouth, his teeth nipping at her lips. They all but fell through the door, Kit slamming it shut behind them. Blindly, Bianca reached out and shot the bolt. Gasping, panting, they kissed and clawed at each other like adversaries, Kit struggling with the zip on her dress and then giving up, fuck the dress, and instead he did what he had been dreaming of all evening since that moment when he’d accidentally thrown his drink down her front; he pushed the damned dress up, out of the way, saw the lacy panties there, white, of course they were white, and he ripped them off her, paused, saw the swansdown powder-puff of white-blonde curls. It was the most erotic thing he’d ever seen.
‘Jesus, Bianca,’ he groaned, turning, pushing her back against the closed door.
She was pulling at his belt, unzipping him with trembling fingers. He helped her, tugging his pants out of the way, letting his cock spring free. Bianca touched him, and he felt he was almost on the point of losing control. He shoved her hand away, lifted her, spread her legs, felt her wetness with the tip of his cock and, groaning, he thrust up and in, deep in, and she cried out, locking her legs around his waist, while he drove himself furiously into her.